Morning Musings

Most times, when I get up in the morning, my brain is in high gear; sometimes, rarely, it is somnambulant. Today I am at a run, with ideas flitting around like birds around a feeder. So here is one of my many thoughts, presented for your consideration.

The Love of Novelty

The love of novelty combined with admiration for piety easily breeds an irresponsible tolerance for theological rubbish or religious psychobabble. The modern, emergent church movement wants to be with it, to be viewed by the world as relevant to their understandings of life. There is a little ditty, attributed by many sources to an “old preacher”, but in essence unknown, that goes to the heart of the issue.

You say I am not with it?
My friend, I do not doubt it.
But when I see what I’m not with
I’d rather be without it.

The problem with novelty is that truth is truth, and while we may rightly consider new ways of presenting it, it is not malleable, it cannot be “adjusted” to suit our perceived needs. As Winston Churchill so aptly pointed out:

Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.

Reconciling our modern “need” for novelty with the biblical concept of eternal truth is no easy task, if indeed it can be done at all. While Paul did argue for being all things to all people in order to bring them into family of God, I believe his focus was on connecting with your audience, not shading the content to make it more palatable.

God has not changed. He is the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We should remember that as we face the challenge of dealing with a culture addicted to novelty.

1 thought on “Morning Musings

  1. Amen.

    Ears are itching and those who don’t scratch them are often derided. The quest and thirst for truth is perhaps too much to be tolerated in our self-centered culture.

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